"Will it work?" The queen's voice was heavy. Breaking the hum of generators as she stood in the dark room. The only light source was from the machine before them, powered by the cores natural heat and lava.

"Of course it will." The man beside her said. He adjusted his lab coat, folding the collar down to be flatter, then lifted his hands to use all that he had to configure the machine.
"It has to."

His words were muttered under his breath. The queen, standing beside her advisor, rested a hand on his shoulder. A graceful smile on her lips. Gentle and kind despite the difficult situation.

"I trust you."

Those words still remained lingered in the back of his mind as gaster was escorted back to the underground by sans, papyrus, and chara. His footsteps were light due to the fact that it was your body he was walking in. Gravel turned to snow. Snow turned to stone. Stone turned to concrete. And concert turned to marble slabbed floors.

The underground had been abandoned. Left to rot away in loneliness. His home. The labs lights flickered to life. Though the bulbs seemed old and unused in a whole resulting in a constant flickering of lights. Now it was a matter of muscle memory. Tracing steps of the past back to where they led in the present, gaster stood before a large computer. His eyes, or rather your eyes, flickered across the black screen.

"Hasn't been used in a while." Papyrus muttered between puffs of smoke. His length body leaned against the wall, eyes shifting between gaster in your body to his brother and chara.
"Gonna be a little difficult to use."

Papyrus was somber. More so than he normally was. Sans was quite, standing in front of chara who held his hand with a pensive look in their red eyes.

"No bother." Gaster said in your voice. The (E/C) of your eyes shifted from their natural color to purple. Fingers danced across the keyboard booting the computer to life.

The machine booted up. At first normally. The queen stepped back at the sparks that began to flare.

"Gaster shut it down." Her words were firm. A command rather than a request.

"I can't." Gaster spoke firmly. A grin on his face as the machine sparked and flames a bit. With a blast that resulted in the two covering their faces with their arms the rift was open.
"It's working!"

Finally! A way to escape. The rift was growing. Though it wasn't a rift through the barrier. It was something more.

"Gaster!" The queen shouted, Toriel shoved him to the side in the vein attempt to shut down the machine.

"No!" Gaster shouted. Sparks and flames engulfed the workshop.
"No not yet!"

It was a struggle. A fight to keep the machine off or on.

"My work!" Gaster bellowed over the loud noises that enveloped the space.
"Not yet!"

A door slid open for the group. An old elevator that seemed barely used. Not even undyne used it when she resided here for her research for the queen. With practiced steps gaster led the group down. Down farther below than anyone had ventured.

Chara and sans held their hands together tighter. Papyrus seemed on edge. Though sans didn't remember this place papyrus did. After all, how do you forget the place you grew up in?

Gaster stepped out. Hurried paced steps as he followed the darkened winding halls that seemed impossible to navigate with out his help. Punching in numbers on a keypad a door slid open.

BOOM!

The blast sent Toriel back, the energy had bunched too close together and created a cataclysmic explosion. There were shouts. Alarms. When the queen sat up after being hit there was the doctor. Desperately trying to keep the rift stabilized.

"It's beautiful!" He cried out the vortex. Multiple hands holding it open supported by nothing but magic.
"All these years we finally did it!"

Toriel pushed herself up coughing. Then the pull began. Slowly papers began to fly off desks. Research sucked into the void as it grew bigger this time with out the help of magic.

"Wait!" Gaster gasped, eyes widening and pupils flickering around almost wildly.
"Wait somethings wrong!"

"Gaster!" Toriel called as she gripped the door frame. It was like a tornado. Wind pulling everything it could get into the void. An effort to consume everything around it.
"Let it go! This isn't right!"

But her words went unheard. There in the darkness of the rift gaster saw it all. Time. Space. Multiple realties. All of it clashed together in a big beautiful blend of colors. Almost as of an artist took to the sky and painted these magnificent pieces of reality together. At the sound of his name again, gaster turned his head to Toriel. A mistake. His grip on the room faltered. Just enough to loosen his footing and pull him in. It happened so fast.

Toriel reached out for gaster. Shouting his name in an attempt to grab him to safety. But it was went enough. Fallen into the void, he was lost to his original world. The rift ate itself and in one final blast it closed. Separating gaster from this world.

What was left of a once organized research lab, was now nothing but a destructive mess. Gaster stepped over debris. The machine looked busted. Left to sit in the dust alone for years.

"Why are we here?" Sans, who had been unusually quite the whole time, finally spoke up. His voice was hesitant.

"My old laboratory." Gaster hummed. He stepped towards the machine, eyes looking up at it as if it was his own child. A look papyrus never had gotten. Bitterness crept into the room. A feeling chara could pick up on. Looking between the brothers they finally yanked sans's hand.

Sans looked back at chara confused.

"Something isn't right about this." Chara signed. Careful to make sure that gaster couldn't see their signed words.

"I know." Sans signed back to chara.
"I have a bad feeling."

"We need dream. He knows about going between. Doesn't he?" Chara signed back. Sans perked up, as if a plan was forming in his mind.

"I think so!" Sans signed back.
"But how do I get away to ask? Do you think dream could help?"

"I can distract gaster." Chara signed again.
"It's all we can do for now. I don't feel right about this."

Sans nodded. Letting go of chara's hand he stood back, shifting his gaze to papyrus who had been watching the whole interaction. With a nod from the older brother chara stepped forward.

They shuffled towards gaster and grasped the shirt on your body. Tugging at it chara began to ask questions about the machine.

"It's a machine for the in between." Gaster said going on a tangent about the device. Papyrus shifted towards the door to block sans. With a single glance both brothers nodded. Then sans ran out of the room.

The halls were confusing winding and easy to get lost in. Sans couldn't remember how he got here. After a while of running he stopped looking around confused. Which way was it again? Was he far enough away?

How could he contact dream? Like he did before? Should he call for ink? Sans wasn't sure but-

"Hey!" Ink's voice startled sans. With a jump and a gasp he turned to look at his friend. The other skeleton smiled amused leaning on the paintbrush.
"Took ya long enough it's been at least a year."

Sans frowned a bit. It didn't matter ink was being confusing again.

"I need your help getting to dream." Sans spoke urgently.
"Somethings happened to (Y/N)! I don't know what to do."

Ink stared before he rubbed his chin with his fingers humming in thought.

"Let me take a wild guess here. Gaster?" He smiled. Like a know it all almost. Sans's eyes widened.

"Yes how did you know?" He was always so easily impressed. Ink grinned smugly.

"Oh you know," ink cut himself off. Now wasn't the time.
"Don't worry. I'll get us out of here to dream."

Flicking his paintbrush off his back, his wonderful broomie, ink allowed the bristles to collide with the floor leaving behind a puddle of dark pen like ink. With the brush back in place he offered his hand to sans.

"After you!" He grinned. Sans took his hand and took the plunge. The two disappearing into the puddle.

                     _________________

Trapped in your own mind. What an odd feeling that was. It was as if someone had shoved you into the backseat forcefully of your own car and was driving you to an unknown location.

The goopy water was warm. Yet somehow cold at the same time. Drifting aimlessly in a sea of darkness.

Just like my nightmares. You thought to yourself. There's no way out. No way of knowing what your body was doing under Gaster's control. Did he have good intentions? There's no telling that. Especially considering you just met him. Though he made it sound as if he's been watching you for a long time.

You closed your eyes. Tempted to give up. What else was there to do? As the feeling set in pain ripples through your body. A sharp gasp escapes your lips as you writhe and sit up. Gasping for air. It felt like your whole body was being stretched there for a moment. Trembling and gripping your shirt in one hand you looks down into the inky water. Your reflection staring back at you. But when the pain happened again you saw it.

For a split second it looked like you glitched. Like a virus in a computer. Splitting between frames and becoming disoriented. Another pained gasp leaves you. What's going on?!

Was this was error went through? Is this how he became the way that he was? No wonder he was a bitter person. The pain of changing. The pain of splitting realities. It caused a choked sob to leave you.

That dream suddenly returned to you. That beautiful cavern and the rocks that glimmered like stars above on the ceiling. The glowing flowers and then that child. A ghost it seemed. What did they call themselves?

CORE frisk wasn't it? What were they saying?

Another painful gasp left you as your body collapsed in pain. Writhing from the next wave of what you assumed to be glitches.

"If your code corrupts I can't help you." A shortened answer from the words replaying in your memories. Your code. The very essence that makes you, you. It's corrupted already isn't it? Gaster shouldn't be in your mind. He shouldn't have control of your body. What ever these codes were at their core recognized that the person not in control of the body was like a virus and needed to be booted.

Chara!

Your eyes widened as you tried to stand up. Stumbling into the inky water as you did. No you need to keep fighting for chara. You'd almost given up. Being alone in this endless wasteland made it hard to remember who you even were. Was this what gaster experienced?

Alone in the darkness? Alone for what feels like a second and eternity all at once? You pushed forward.

Suddenly you were filled with Determination.

You're getting out of here. You're going to get control of your body. How you weren't sure yet. But you knew one thing. You're getting out of here.

You hoped.